


Fear

by sunsetdawn20



Category: Prison Break
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-12-06 12:50:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11601018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsetdawn20/pseuds/sunsetdawn20
Summary: He’s not sure he’d still know how to behave in a situation like this if he wasn’t playing a character.Part of my Road to Panama collection of fics. Set during the beginning of S2, when Paul is trying to get close to Sara.





	Fear

**015\. fear**  
He’s not even funny, not remotely, only inappropriate at best, but Sara laughs anyway and it doesn’t even sound like one of those forced laughs women feel compelled to use whenever a man is an idiot and they are too polite or afraid to tell him so. Paul has heard those a lot over the years, in bars where he just drank and watched others try to pick up women. He pitied them – the men for being so blind to their own failures, and the women for going home with them anyway, because their standards have been brought so low. 

It’s what he loves about Caroline. In private, she only ever laughs when she feels like it. 

But Sara laughs and it’s an interesting mixture of disapproval, amusement, and surprise. As if all she had ever encountered were people talking about addiction in solemn voices, and suddenly, for a brief second, Paul wishes he could be that for her – the one smiling face that says all the worst things but makes everything better anyway. 

\---

Paul can’t remember the last time he cooked for someone. His only friends are colleagues and, as the past weeks have shown, that never turns out good, because the job always comes first. And he never really has time to date, anyway – he tells himself it’s just that, he tells himself it has nothing to do with him clinging to the image of a woman who might not even exist anymore. 

It’s surprisingly easy being this. 

He never loses focus, is working an angle with every other sentence, because it’s ingrained in his body and mind, but in a strange way that almost makes it easier. He’s not sure he’d still know how to behave in a situation like this if he wasn’t playing a character and trying to pry out information.

\---

“If someone’s a liability they go. Tancredi was becoming a liability.”

Paul grits his teeth at Kim’s condescending voice. Things are slipping from his hands and it’s one thing that the only way to retirement in their business is with a bullet in the head – but much more importantly than that, there’s professional pride at stake here and Paul is getting increasingly irritated. 

He’s about to say something when Kim adds. “So is his daughter.” 

Paul stops breathing. “Wait, what? Sara?” 

The silence on the other end of the line is all too knowing. “Goodbye Paul,” is all the man says eventually and Paul clenches his fist. He fights the urge to punch something, anything. He fights the urge to scream in frustration. 

He doesn’t know why. Probably it’s rage at Kim and his slimy arrogance. He’s not sure what else it could be. It’s not like he’s had a problem killing indiscriminately when ordered. 

He pushes the thoughts of blueberry pie aside. The rest is muscle memory.


End file.
